by Tia Souders
“Usually I work until dark. I’m in my office most nights until late. But tonight . . .” Rhett shifted his gaze, looking out into the resort property beyond and shrugged. “Tonight felt different. I needed a break, a reprieve.”
“Seems to me like that gorgeous house of yours would be the perfect place.”
When he turned his eyes on her, the intensity in them stole her breath.
“Sometimes, it’s too quiet there. I don’t like the quiet.” He dropped his gaze to his wine glass and picked it up. He swirled the ruby red liquid around a moment as if contemplating something, then glanced back up at her and asked, “Would you like a glass?”
He motioned to the empty chair beside him, releasing a riot of butterflies in her chest.
“I’d love some.” She took the seat beside him and accepted the offered glass, secretly thrilled he had one waiting. Maybe he had wanted her company, after all.
Her gaze lingered on the soft cotton of his t-shirt and his jeans. Beneath the material, she noted the slide of muscles as he set the bottle down and leaned back in his chair. While Neil had kept in shape, he hadn’t been particularly built, but she could tell by the cut of Rhett’s arms and the silhouette of his chest through his t-shirt that wasn’t the case.
“So, how is the office space working for you?” he asked.
“Great,” she said, noting the nerves in her voice.
She glanced up at the sky. Lord, help me navigate this.
Exhaling, she smiled over at him, urging herself to relax. This wasn’t a date. It was just two people talking.
“Thank you again,” she said. “It’s really working out, and I’m so grateful to have another chance at doing something I love. Had I stayed in the city, I’m not sure I would have.”
Rhett nodded. “I get it. Managing the resort is a lot of yellow tape and paperwork sometimes. I think that’s why I’m also out of my office, helping out with the land and the stables and the animals. I love it too much to leave that part of it up to someone else entirely. It’s hard to be happy when you don’t love what you do.” He shook his head, deep in thought. “I honestly couldn’t imagine it.”
Danny took a sip of her wine, eyeing him over the rim of her glass. “You know, after Neil, I wondered for a long time if I’d ever be truly excited about anything again. I lost everything. My friends, my apartment, my husband, and ultimately, my job. I honestly couldn’t imagine a second chance at happiness. It almost felt like I got that one chance and screwed up, so that was it. And now . . .” She shook her head and laughed, glancing at the ground. “Never mind, it’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid.” Rhett leaned forward in his chair, clasping his hands in front of him, his expression earnest.
“I just . . .” She bit her lower lip. “I’ve only been here little more than a few weeks, yet, Cedar Falls, feels like home.”
Montana Wild felt like home. But of course, she couldn’t say that. She’d sound crazy. This was a resort, not her private residence, and she wouldn’t want Rhett to feel obligated to offer to extend her stay, not when she couldn’t afford it without some kind of special treatment. And the last thing she wanted was to look or sound desperate.
His throat bobbed when he looked at her as if he could see everything that lay beneath.
She’d give anything to know what he was thinking.
“What do you like about it?” he whispered.
Everything. You.
“I like the slow pace, the lazy days. I like that there’s no shopping mall or movie theater in town. I love that everyone hangs out at The Water Hole and the only place you can get your groceries is Fresh Market. Already, all of the faces are becoming familiar, and I find that I don’t mind everyone knowing your name and stopping you on the street.”
Rhett arched a brow. “There’s a price to pay for living in a small town.”
“True.” Danny pursed her lips. “But even if the price is gossip and everyone knowing your business, it’s a trade-off to the sense of community here, to everyone having your back. There’s a simplicity about a small town, an intimacy I hadn’t expected. And it’s pretty darn cool that I’m not judged for wanting to cut hair. Quite the opposite. People are actually thrilled by it.”
He frowned. “Why would anyone judge you for it?”
She shrugged and peered down into her glass, mostly because looking into Rhett’s eyes was dangerous. It made her want things she was sure she couldn’t have. “You’d be surprised,” she murmured.
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Rhett said, his tone soft.
“Thanks.” She peered down at her hands a moment, then continued, “My life is nothing like it was six months ago. I thought I was happy, then. Now, I look back and I think I had forgotten what happy looked like. Comfortable and happy are two very different things.”
Rhett took a sip of his wine. His brow furrowed as he set his glass back down like there was a particularly hard puzzle he was trying to solve. “No one knows that more than me. I was happy once . . . And I think I’ve realized in the past week that I’d like to get back there.” Then he grinned. “Maybe all I need is a vacation like you, a change.”
Danny didn’t know what to say to that. She knew how hard Rhett worked. She’d seen it herself and heard from several people how his hours extended from dawn, clear into the night. How it had been that way for two years now because he hated going home, back to an empty house. But this was the first time Danny witnessed him acknowledging that maybe his life wasn’t what it should be. That he wasn’t happy, and he knew it. The big question was whether he was ready to change that, if he’d ever be ready.
Rhett’s throat bobbed as he leaned closer to her. “I don’t know how to let go.”
His admission caught her by surprise, and it took her a minute to respond. “Have you asked for help?”
His brow wrinkled.
“From Him,” Danny said, glancing up toward the sky, hoping she wasn’t overstepping her bounds. But if she knew anything, it was that she never could’ve gotten through these past months without His help.
Rhett shook his head. “I think you already know the answer to that.” His voice was casual, yet his eyes . . . his eyes held a well of grief in them so deep, it was a miracle he didn’t drown.
Danny hesitated before she reached out and grabbed his free hand. Slowly, she intertwined her fingers with his, afraid to glance up into his eyes for fear the spell might be broken—that he’d yank his hand away from her and head back inside the lodge.
A ragged breath escaped Rhett’s lips as if in pain, and suddenly, Danny felt certain she was meant to be there, with him. And if she had one mission in life, it was to help Rhett Montgomery heal.
“I think I’m going to stay. Permanently in Cedar Falls, I mean.”
The slightest hint of surprise brightened his eyes. “You love it that much? Is all of this newfound happiness because of Cedar Falls?”
Even as her pulse raced, Danny shook her head. “I’d say it’s more on account of Montana Wild.”
Her gaze flickered to his lips, and not for the first time, she wondered what it would be like to kiss him. They were only a foot apart now. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find out.
“Everyone deserves to be happy,” she breathed.
His eyes lingered on hers a moment before his own gaze dipped to her mouth and he leaned in even closer.
“Everyone?” he rasped like a man thirsting for water, like he desperately wanted to believe it.
She nodded, then said the words she knew he needed to hear. “Even you.”
Then he kissed her.
CHAPTER 13
“I can’t believe you’ve never been fishing.” One corner of Rhett’s mouth tipped up in a grin.
“I told you, I’ve been fishing before.”
“Once or twice when you were seven doesn’t count.”
“Well, you might have a point, but only because I was very much a girly girl,” Danny said, yanking her long hair
up into a ponytail, “so I was more concerned with ruining my pretty pink polish and getting worm guts on me.”
Rhett groaned. “You were one of those.”
Danny laughed. “Guilty.”
“Well, my daughter won’t worry about getting dirty. She’ll have mud-stained knees and dirt under her nails, and when we go fishing, she’ll bait her own hook. That is, when she’s not busy catching toads by the creek.”
He flipped open his tackle box, ignoring the prickly feeling of grief threatening to surface at the mention of kids.
It was a nice picture he painted. One he hadn’t thought about since Mae Beth was alive, and it shocked him now to hear it slip so easily from his mouth.
He’d always wanted children, a family of his own—the whole nine yards—but when his wife died, all his long-held dreams for the future vanished. It startled him now to realize that none of those desires had fully gone away. They’d just been pushed to the recesses of his mind, boxed along with all his pain and sorrow. But as the agony faded, all the things he had wanted for himself rose to the surface.
“You want kids?” Danny asked, her eyes following his hands as he removed the tub of nightcrawlers and a couple bobbers for their lines.
“Always have, I guess.” Even if that future did look a little different than he imagined it.
“This would be a beautiful place to raise them.” Her eyes shifted to the water and he followed her gaze.
This little alcove had always been his favorite place on the ranch, hidden away from everyone and everything, and in the last two years, it became his sanctuary more than anything. Though it seemed so much easier to work himself numb, occasionally, he needed a reprieve, and when he found it too difficult to submerge the rising tide of his feelings, he retreated here to be alone. Fishing or gliding over the water on a kayak was his form of therapy. Last weekend, when he caught Danny there, it had been a shock. Then again, he shouldn’t have been so surprised because, from the moment Danny arrived, she’d singlehandedly managed to barge into every aspect of his life—including his heart.
Last night, much to his surprise, he went to bed thinking about her. It was the first time he’d had a woman on his mind in years. When he woke, he expected to feel an insurmountable surge of guilt. Where Mae Beth used to occupy his every waking thought, Danny had somehow snuck in when he wasn’t looking. But instead of guilt, he felt an unexpected peace he could only surmise might be heaven-sent.
Rhett settled into the grass next to Danny. “Honestly, I thought I’d have kids by now. Life always turns out a little different than expected, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Danny said, pressing her lips into a thin line, “it sure does. I guess I’m behind where I thought I’d be too. Instead of being happily married with a couple kids, I’m a divorcee starting over in a new place.”
“Good thing there’s still time,” Rhett said, glancing up at her with a smile. Then he dipped his head and pointed to the tub of nightcrawlers. “Now . . . let’s get you fishin’.”
A few minutes later, they stood in front of the water, fishing poles in hand.
“You’re sure you don’t want me to do that?” Rhett arched a brow, suppressing his laughter.
Danny held a worm between two fingers, nose scrunched as she held it precariously over the sharp end of the hook. She’d dropped it so many times in her pathetic attempt, Rhett was amazed to see it was still alive.
“No. I refuse to be a wuss.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Does Tess bait her own hook?” Danny glanced back at him, grimacing when the worm curled in her fingers.
“She grew up with five brothers who would’ve hounded her endlessly if she hadn’t.”
“Right.” Danny hesitated, then nodded and set her jaw. “I can do this.”
She quickly stabbed the hook into one end of the worm and through the other, chanting something under her breath that sounded a lot like ew-ew-ew-ew-ew the entire time.
Once she finished, she held her pole out, her blue eyes shining with pride. “I did it!”
“Congratulations.” Rhett reached out and tapped the underside of her chin playfully. “Now all we need is to catch you a fish and you’ll be on your way to being a real fisherman.”
“You think I’ll catch one?”
He scoffed. “You’re with me. I know you’ll catch one.”
After showing her how to cast, he stepped back and watched her work. The first couple tries were a little shaky and resulted in Danny catching her hook in the nearby trees, but after a few minutes, she had the basics down.
She cast her line out into the lake, the baited hook soaring through the air and softly plopping into the water.
“This is kind of fun,” she said, grinning over at him.
“And just think, you haven’t even caught anything yet.”
Not two seconds after the words left his mouth did Danny’s bobber dip below the surface then reappear again.
She gasped. “Did you see that?”
Rhett set his pole down and stepped closer. “Uh-huh,” he murmured. “You have something testing it out, taking a nibble. Wait until it does it again and yank back hard in one quick, sharp motion. It’s called setting the hook.”
“Okay,” she replied, but he could see her nerves in the stiff set of her shoulders.
“Just relax,” he whispered as he watched her bobber move slightly. He placed a hand on her back, urging muscles to loosen, and when the plastic bobber sunk beneath the surface once more, he said, “Now.”
Danny yanked back hard, her eyes wide like the moon. A second later, her rod bent, and her line strained. “I think I have him,” she screamed. “What now?”
“Now you reel ‘em in.”
Danny turned the handle of her pole round-and-round, reeling in her catch with the occasional instruction from Rhett and all the enthusiasm of a child. She chattered endlessly as she fought the fish until the line gave way. With a splash of lake water, a fish emerged at the end of the line. Its tail curled and flapped as it glistened under the sun.
Beside him, Danny screamed and hopped up and down, nearly dropping her pole in the water. The joy on her face was contagious.
Laughing, Rhett grabbed her by the waist and spun her around. His eyes slid to her mouth with the insatiable urge to kiss her, to steal some of that joy for his own. So he crushed his mouth to hers, sealing her lips with his own and swallowing the sound. Everything around him faded away with the softness of her kiss and the feel of her in his arms.
By the time he pulled away, his heart beat like a drum in his chest, and all he could do was look into her eyes, wondering how something he was sure was wrong could feel so right. Should he so easily be able to move on?
“What kind is it?” Danny asked, breathless.
Rhett blinked before he remembered the fish on the line.
Jumping back, he grabbed the line above the fish and held it out. It had greenish skin and yellow spots with a salmon underbelly, and if Rhett had to guess, it was about ten inches in length. “It’s a Brook Trout.”
“Is that good for my first?”
“It’s pretty good,” Rhett confirmed with a grin. His first catch as a kid was a Blue Gill the size of a minnow. But he wasn’t about to tell her that.
So instead, he asked her if she wanted to keep it or release it, then taught her the fine art of taking a fish off the hook.
CHAPTER 14
More than a week had passed since Danny shared her first kiss with Rhett. The days slipped by in a whirlwind of working on the ranch during the day and sneaking time with him in the evening. Never in a million years would she have guessed she could be this happy, and a part of her was scared at the prospect it might all slip away. The time she spent with Rhett was amazing. Slowly, he’d gone from the sullen man she first met to one who learned how to laugh again. But she’d be lying if she said the notion that she was falling for him didn’t scare her. Because it did.
There were times when
they were together where he’d grow quiet, staring off into the distance and going to another place, one Danny couldn’t reach, and she could only assume it was to thoughts of Mae Beth. Not that she blamed him. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to try and move on with your life after having lost your partner. But Danny understood, and maybe she was an idiot for still wanting him, especially after what she’d already been through. After all, she’d already spent the last few years sharing a husband. But she still couldn’t help but hope that with time, she’d have his heart.
“Well, well, well . . . I have to say, I never thought I’d see the day.” Tess grinned and slung her arm around Danny’s shoulders. “My big brother has a smile on his face, and he left work before six p.m. to do something fun.”
Rhett rolled his eyes. “That makes two of us who are shocked. I never thought I’d see the day my baby sister actually put on a dress.”
Tess smirked. “I just choose to avoid them because my legs are my secret weapon, and the men in this town can’t handle me in a dress.”
Danny chuckled as Tess grabbed her hand and yanked her away from Rhett’s side and further into the Montgomery home.
“Hey!” Rhett called out after her.
“Sorry but we need girl time.”
Danny glanced helplessly back at Rhett and shrugged, relieved to see his lips curl up into a grin.
They passed through the kitchen where Mrs. Montgomery worked on a fruit salad and veggie tray, exchanging a brief hello before Tess snagged a couple of drinks from a giant cooler filled with ice before forcing her out onto the back patio. From there, Tess sunk down into one of the large cushioned chairs and motioned for Danny to follow suit.
Out in the yard, Silas, Houston, Chase, and Colton—all Montgomery brothers Danny had met at church two weeks earlier—played what seemed to be a rather competitive game of badminton while Mr. Montgomery manned the grill. Sitting across from them on a covered swing was a woman with long auburn hair Danny didn’t recognize.